Miller Center

Pros

• The staff at Miller are fantastic with her mother.
• Her mother loves being there.
• The food is really good with a varied selection every day.
• The staff treat her with dignity and respect.
• She feels safe there.
• Caleb and his team took the best of care of her mother.
• The administrator and social worker at Clarendel were very kind and helped the family find another place for their loved one.

Cons

• The facility is described as a disgrace, with residents not receiving showers and assistance taking over an hour to respond.
• Hygiene is severely neglected, including dirty towels on the bathroom floor, urine puddles, and consistently sticky floors.
• The staff are often uncaring or unresponsive, with call bells ignored and attitudes like "that's not my problem."
• Residents have sustained harm from neglect, such as being left unattended in bathrooms leading to head injuries and unaddressed dehydration.
• There are claims of falsified documentation and progress notes, impacting care decisions and Medicare approvals.
• The facility is likened to a "ghost town" with inadequate basic training and poor communication among CNAs, nurses, and doctors.
• Families report a lack of communication about declines and a failure to offer condolences after a loved one died.
• Residents are discharged due to insurance or lack of progress, sometimes before recovery, forcing families to seek other placements.
• One review notes a patient was sent home with scabies and describes the social worker as disorganized.
• Overall, the care environment is portrayed as unsafe and leading to serious consequences, including fatal infections from improper catheter care.

Review

The collection of reviews presents a strikingly mixed picture of care at Miller's facilities, with some families expressing deep gratitude and others detailing troubling neglect. On one end, there are heartfelt stories of compassionate staff, safe environments, and appreciated routines; on the other, there are extensive accounts of lapses in basic care, poor communication, and even serious harm. Taken together, the reviews reveal a complex reality: for some residents and their families, Miller's can feel like a caring, almost familial place, while for others it feels dangerously understaffed, disorganized, and unresponsive.

Several reviewers highlight genuinely positive experiences. One reviewer describes their mother as a long-term resident who thrives there: the staff are "fantastic," the resident feels safe, and she receives dignified, respectful treatment from nurses and aides. The reviewer notes that the food is varied and of good quality, with the family visiting multiple times a week and never witnessing anything untoward. Another account echoes this sentiment with warmth and specificity: Caleb and his team are praised for taking the best possible care of a mother; the facility is described as clean, with the patient kept very clean and happy about the food - shrimp in particular - while nurses and aides provide steady, attentive care around the clock. In these stories, the sense is that when staffing and leadership align, Miller's can feel like a supportive home for a vulnerable loved one, and the gratitude can be deeply emotional.

Yet the narrative is not remotely uniform. A starkly negative review labels the facility a "-5" and warns others not to bring even an enemy there. Specific allegations run strong: a family member was not offered showers for two weeks, responses to call buttons could take over an hour, and the patient was found with dirty towels on the bathroom floor and a dirty environment overall. The reviewer describes a decline over six years, urging readers to think twice before placing a loved one in the facility. This viewpoint emphasizes basic respect, timely assistance, and a clean, well-maintained environment as non-negotiables - and it frames their experience as a warning about what can happen when those standards aren't met.

Among the more intense testimonials is a lengthy account from a family that describes ongoing neglect, culminating in a family member's death. The reviewer recounts a pattern of poor care that included garbage accumulation, urine puddles, sticky floors, missed showers, never-changing bedding, and a catheter bag that was not managed properly, which allegedly contributed to a fatal infection. They report that inquiries about the patient's decline were met with neglect and a lack of communication, and that no one from the facility reached out to offer condolences after the loss. The pain is palpable in the narrative, and it ends with a stern admonition to others: even if this is your last resort, be sure you can visit frequently to oversee care, otherwise you risk serious harm to a loved one.

Another review centers on patient discharge and a broader pattern of disorganization and poor communication. A family member alleges that a patient was left unattended in the bathroom, experienced a fall, and did not receive timely attention or adequate documentation. There are claims of a lack of empathy and of insufficient coordination between social workers and nursing staff. The reviewer even questions the competence of the staff, suggesting that false documentation and misrepresentation of a patient's progress were occurring, which ultimately affected decisions about moving the patient to another facility and required Medicare to deny the request. The tone is accusatory and frustrated, underscoring a belief that the facility is not meeting the standard of care owed to vulnerable residents.

A separate account focuses on a different resident's experience with Riverside Miller rehab, listing a host of concrete failures: bed rails not raised, a patient who was dropped without proper documentation, a five-day wait for an X-ray, a missed breakfast, a tray collapse during lunch, missed physical therapy sessions, and dehydration that required IV rehydration. The reviewer criticizes the lack of communication among CNAs, nurses, PAs, and doctors, and describes a culture where staff responses feel dismissive - "that's not my problem." They portray a facility where "false documentation" and a lack of accountability were the norm, and where the patient's condition deteriorated as a result. The overall impression is that systemic problems - staffing, training, communication, and leadership - left patients vulnerable and families frustrated at every turn.

A final, particularly wrenching vignette centers on an elderly relative who was hospitalized and then discharged in a way the family saw as hasty and poorly planned. The reviewer recounted a situation in which their aunt suffered a fall and was later discharged because insurance would not approve further care; there was little to no follow-up from the social work team, and the family felt abandoned in the process. The emotional toll is clear: the reviewer laments lost time with their loved one, the inability to say a proper goodbye, and a sense that the facility's coordination, especially around discharge planning, was deeply lacking. The anecdote closes with a sense that, for some families, the decision to place a relative in such care is fraught with fear over what might be missed or mishandled in someone's final days.

Taken as a whole, these reviews depict a facility network with a stark spectrum of experiences. For some residents and families, Miller's is a place of reliable care, nurturing staff, and satisfactory daily living - where meals are enjoyed, rooms are kept clean, and staff members go above and beyond to make patients feel cared for. For others, the same network represents a troubling discrepancy: chronic understaffing, delayed responses, inadequate personal hygiene and sanitation, poor communication across care teams, and disheartening interactions at critical moments like admissions, discharges, and bereavements. The recurring themes - timeliness of care, cleanliness, effective communication, proper documentation, and genuine empathy - emerge clearly across the testimonies, underscoring the high stakes involved in elder and rehab care and the importance of strong leadership and accountability to protect residents' well-being.

This area of Kankakee, Illinois, offers a variety of amenities for seniors looking to settle in a peaceful and convenient neighborhood. With several places of worship nearby, including Southern Baptist Convention and St. Patrick's Catholic Church, residents can easily maintain their spiritual practices. Additionally, there are reputable physicians located within close proximity at Westwood Medical Arts and Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago for any medical needs. Pharmacies such as Riverside Family Pharmacy and Walgreens are conveniently located for easy access to medications. Residents can also enjoy dining options like Poor Boy Too and Subway, as well as cafes like Gathering Grounds Coffee Shop for socializing with friends. Parks such as Bird's Park and Hawkins Park provide relaxing outdoor spaces, while transportation options like the Kankakee Train Depot offer convenient travel options. Overall, this neighborhood provides a comfortable and community-focused environment for seniors looking to make Kankakee their home.

Places of Worship

• Southern Baptist Convention (0.2 miles)
• First United Pentecostal Church (1 miles)
• International Healing & Deliverance Center (1.3 miles)
• St Patrick's Catholic Church (1.5 miles)
• God's Lighthouse Church (1.5 miles)
• Morning Star Baptist Church (1.6 miles)
• Friendship MB Church (1.6 miles)

Physicians

• Westwood Medical Arts (0.2 miles)
• Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (0.3 miles)
• Neurosurgery Consultants (0.3 miles)
• Family Medicine Associates' Healing Arts Center (0.3 miles)
• David E. Krause, M.D., , FACS (0.3 miles)
• Kankakee Valley Ob/Gyn (0.3 miles)
• Hearing Things (0.3 miles)

Pharmacies

• Riverside Family Pharmacy (0.3 miles)
• Walgreens (0.7 miles)
• Osco Drug, Bourbonnais, Pharmacy General (0.9 miles)
• CVS Pharmacy (1.1 miles)
• Walgreens (1.1 miles)
• Riverview Pharmacy (2.5 miles)

Restaurants

• Poor Boy Too (0.3 miles)
• Subway (0.3 miles)
• Little Caesars Pizza (0.4 miles)
• Wendy's (0.4 miles)
• Twins Chicken and Seafood (0.7 miles)
• McDonald's (0.8 miles)
• Niro's Gyros (1 miles)

Hospitals

• Riverside Medical Center (0.3 miles)
• Provena St Mary's Hospital (0.9 miles)
• Oak Surgical Institute (1.1 miles)

Parks

• Bird's Park (0.5 miles)
• Hawkins Park (1.2 miles)
• Jurassic Park (1.9 miles)
• Perry Farm Park Exploration Station (2.1 miles)

Cafes

• Gathering Grounds Coffee Shop (0.9 miles)
• Station Street Cafe (1.3 miles)
• Papis Gaming Cafe (1.3 miles)
• Starbucks (2 miles)
• Yolks & Berries (2.6 miles)

Transportation

• Kankakee Train Depot (1.2 miles)
• Amtrak-Kki (1.2 miles)
• Ill Central Gulf Railroad Co. (1.3 miles)
• U-Haul Neighborhood Dealer (2.4 miles)

Theaters

• Paramount Movie Theater (1.3 miles)